Backstage before her show, Caroline Hu said she wanted to create a little more space to dream. Her retort to the headlines is to build a fantastical world.
“Up until now, I had been trying to build up protective space around me,” she explained. By contrast, this season she considered within a very small space. “It’s like dancing in my bedroom,” she said. “I always have a lot of things going on in my mind, so I wanted to use a small space to create the craziest things.”
“I want more peace to try and build up a safe space,” she added, describing her inspirations in dramatic terms of love and death, joy and shadow, connection and reflection.
Sartorially, such musings made her want to freeze moments in time, for example when a breeze buoys the folds of a skirt. Achieving such volume demands a whole lot of invisible engineering—the designer was adjusting wired hems, ballooning skirts and bows up until the second before models set foot on the runway. The effect was poetic and virtually weightless.
One idea carried over from past collections was a pillowed silhouette, here in deep rose red or saturated blue. “I think of those like a canvas,” Hu offered. “When I have a new inspiration, I put sketches on top of that canvas, and then I can judge whether it s the right feeling.” Blurred prints, extrapolated from photos taken from her apartment window on a rainy day added to the moody romanticism.
Hu mixed the classics, such as taffeta, printed silk organza, hand knits and jersey, with performance fabrics treated to look like taffeta. Her tableau-like smocking—for example on a baby pink number—was produced thanks to an ongoing collaboration with the French lace maker Sophie Hallette. A handmade ceramic pendant top came by way of a new partnership with phone case and electronic accessories maker Casetify. Her spin on the Adidas SL72 and Superstar sneakers will be on sale in just a couple of months.
To emphasize movement, Hu tapped dancers Emma Portner—whose recent work includes collaborations with Vogue, Apple, and Netflix—and Léo Handtschoewercker (who has modeled for several top houses) to perform an interpretive number. “I always try to find that moment, the one where light comes through the clouds,” said Hu.
